Basel will host Fiorentina in 5th round of Europa league group stage. Basel currently occupies first position in group I with nine points from previous four rounds, they celebrated three times and suffered only one defeat against Portuguese Belenenses. They showed decent performances so far in this season and in Swiss league are at first position with seven points more than second Grasshoppers, but they must now try to win here and get back on the track since in last two rounds in league suffered two defeats, against Grasshoppers and St. Gallen. They had a perfect start of this season and suffered only four defeats so far, but this is first time from start of this campaign to suffer two defeats in a row. Since they won a title in Switzerland in previous season they played in qualifications for Champions league and they were eliminated in final round by Macabi Tel Aviv due to away goal. Now they will for sure give their best and win here in order to reach knockout phase. In their first duel Basel celebrated in Italy 1:2. Basel has some injury problems, defenders Daniel Hoegh, Walter Samuel and Philipp Degen and attacking midfielder will all stay out of the action.

Fiorentina on the other side is at second position with three points more than Basel and they didn't impressed with their performances in Europa league in this season, they celebrated two times over Belenenses and Lech Poznan while suffered defeats against Basel and in second duel against Lech. But Fiorentina now seems much better, they are coming to this match after draw against Empoli in last round of Italian Serie A while before that achieved four consecutive victories. Fiorentina is in good shape, they are playing great attacking football and for sure will give their best in this match to win and continue with good results in this season. They are currently at third position in Italian Serie A with only two points less than leaders Inter. All in all they are on good path to reach knockout stage and now are facing against one of the strongest teams in this group, and must try to recoup that negative result from first duel against Basel. They also included themselves into a title race in Italy and if continue with performances like so far for sure will have successful first part of the season. Midfielder Jaub Blaszczykowski will miss this match due to injury while striker Ante Rebic is suspended.

This will for sure be very interesting match between two best teams in this group and this match will probably decide which side will end at first position, Basel won in first match but Fiorentina now seems to be in much better shape, both sides showed more than decent attacking skills in this season and I expect open match with over 2.5 goals to be scored.